Paul passed his Eagle Board of Review last night. Paul’s been an important part of Troop 48 the last few years, helping a large number of our younger Scouts work their way through their rank advancements. For his project, he repainted the Long-a-Coming Historical Society at the historic Berlin Train Station.

The time has come, as it does every year, for the beginning of the Troop 48 Super Bowl Hoagie Sale!

The hoagie sale for those who are new to this, is a major fundraiser for the troop. During hoagie sale season, all scouts spread out far and wide to gather orders for hoagies on Super Bowl Sunday, which this year is, February 5th. For each order an order form must be filled out and the money must be taken upon the placement of the order, not the when the hoagies are delivered.

On the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, we will all meet to build all the hoagies ordered. By around 11 in the morning we will finish up and the scouts can go out and deliver their hoagies.
The proceeds from this fundraiser will continue to help keep down the costs of trips and allow for new and replacement equipment to be bought for the patrols, but it’s success relies on your participation so go sell some hoagies!

The annual Troop 48 Court of Honor is right upon us. On the evening of Wednesday the 14th at a new location this year (Holy Communion Lutheran Church, Berlin, NJ), we will be acknowledging the achievements of the troop and scouts. As always, Class A uniforms are required, so make sure all your patches are up to date. In addition, the meeting of the 7th will be an advancement night to help all scouts get those last minute requirements done.

• Candy for the Troops – November 2 to 9 -Bring your extra Halloween
Candy to the troop meetings on November 2 or 9th!
All candy will be sent to our troops overseas.

• Scouting for Food – November 2 to 21 – collect canned and non-perishable food from your friends, family, and neighbors and bring them to Scouts between November 2 and 21. All food will be given to the food bank at Holy Communion Church.

• Erik L’s Eagle Project – Nov 6 & 10 –
Day 1 will take place on Sunday, November 6 from 9 AM to 3 PM. Day 2 will take place on Tuesday, November 8 from 9 AM to 3 PM (most students have off for elections that day), again from 9 am to 3 pm. The rain dates will be 11/10, 11/11, or 11/12.

Erik will be building a fenced in area for the dogs to play in.
Please make sure to wear long pants, long sleeves, and work gloves (the troop will have pairs to lend out for those who need them) for both days, as there is poison ivy in the vicinity that we are working in!

This will be our last Eagle Project of 2011, I hope that everyone can help make it as sucessful as the first three this year! Please come out and donate any time that you can to this worthy project!

• Tree Farm Day – November 11 – Grand Teton Crew helps out at the tree farm in New Egypt to raise money for their trip.

• Batona Campground Trip – November 18 to 20 – the Cub Scouts come to visit as we build an obstacle course, have a short hike, play manhunt, and build a monkey bridge. Fun times for all at our traditional, long-running November campout! So long-running that I attended this trip as a Cub! (Scoutmaster Mike)

• Scouting for Food Distribution – November 21 – 5 PM to 9 PM at Holy

Communion Church – Come help put together Thanksgiving meal packages and distribute them to the less fortunate!
• Feed the Troops Rally – November 24 – 2389 Marlton Pike W, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002. We’ll meet at the church at 9:30 to carpool over for anyone interested. Bring flags to wave as we thank (and surprise) hundreds of young men and women, currently training at Fort Dix to be deployed overseas, who can’t be with their families on Thanksgiving.
Please wear “Class A” uniforms.

Now that our adventures at Sandy Hook have come to a close this month, we move forward towards the next events of the years.

First of foremost, this weekend, Saturday the 22st and Sunday the 23rd) is Paul’ s Eagle Scout project. He will be working on the rail road station a block away from the shed (I’m sure you’ve all seen it at some point). Everyone who is available should be in attendance to support Paul as he helps restore the station to its original gleam. This means we will be painting so please wear appropriate old clothing. This will be from 9 AM to 3 PM at the station.

Next up on the calendar is next months trip to Goshen Pond, or not really Goshen Pond, but Bodine field, but we never really change the name. The cub scouts will be attending this trip, so we will, pulling out the usual stops of rope courses, hikes, and maybe some new additions. Also, we will also be trying to deplete the copious amounts of wood stashed on the side of the shed. The trip will be from Friday the 18th of November to Sunday the 20th. If you’re planning on attending, let your patrol leader know, so they can have an accurate head count.

The yard sale is upon us! This weekend, October 1st, Troop 48 will be manning the tables and selling out everything they can as our yard sale fundraiser takes place. We ask all scout to be at the shed at 6:30AM Saturday in order to setup. Also, tomorrow night, Friday, all who are available, we will be meeting at the shed at 6:30PM to sort through and to price all of the donations we have received.

Also!
The troops camping trip agenda has been laid out for the year as decided by the scouts. Some trip favorites for this year include, Sandy Hook (October), Rodney, the District Klondike Derby, and Gettysburg. For a full list of all the activities for this year please check the calendar.
PARENTS: If you are able to attend any of these trips please inform Mike McCormick. These trips can only follow through if we have enough parental support for transportation.

This next week is a busy one indeed, and I’m here to tell you all about it.

Firstly, our annual summer trip, this year to the Allegheny Mountains, begins next Saturday(Friday night if you want to be technical about it). For all of those who don’t already know, there are two crews for this trip. The older scouts in the troop attending the trip will be going on a backpacking expedition on the Laurel Highlands Trail in the Allegheny Mountains from Sunday to Wednesday. Our base camp crew for the trip will be spending the week doing such activities as biking, white water rafting, visiting local attractions, and sampling the water including natural water slides, in Ohiopyle State Park where we are staying. All those curious as to what they might need to pack you can look here for a overview (obviously the number of these items should be increased for it is only a weekend camping trip list rather than a week long trip as the summer trip is).

Another important happening these upcoming days is the annual updating of medical forms required by the BSA. These forms are used in the event that a scout must receive medical attention during a troop outing and will provide doctors with, accurate, up-to-date information about the scout. For this update, a photocopy of your scouts health insurance card (front AND back), a completed Medical Form Packet, and a physical are required. All of these are due in to the troop by July 30, 2011. In addition to scouts, parents, who are attending trips which will last longer than 3 days (ie the summer trip), a completed medical form and copy of insurance card is needed from you as well.

If your scout is in need of a physical for the summer trip, our kind Assistant Scoutmaster Dr. Raj Chugh will be giving physicals free of charge this upcoming Wednesday, July 27 from 7:30pm to 8:30pm in the church. Please note: these physicals are for Scouting use only. For a physical to be conducted, the scout’s parent is required to be in attendance and a waiver hold harmless agreement must be signed. Please remember: you will still need a photocopy of your scouts insurance card and filled our medical form as well.
Any question regarding medical form updates can be directed via email to Deb Sperling at dsperling4@aol.com.

In other none medical related news, for all scouts attending the backpacking portion of our summer trip, we will be meeting at REI Tuesday, July 26th, after 6 o’clock to purchase food for the trip. Tom Ferrari, our backpacking connoisseur, will be there to assists in answer any scouts questions. All those who cannot make this meeting are required to purchase their backpacking meals on their own as well as other foods for the trip. An email should be sent out shortly outlining what foods are needed. You can direct any questions concerning this towards our scoutmaster Mike McCormick.

This weekend, June 25th and June 26th from 9AM to 3PM is Steven’s Eagle Scout Project. All scouts are expected to be in attendance for this substantial and important event in support of Steven.

Also, next week, is a leaders meeting.
All scouts not attending the backpacking portion of the summer trip are expected and required to come with ideas in regards to what they would like to do on the summer trip.
Ideas such as hiking, biking, swimming, local attractions are good starting points. A canoe trip has already been scheduled for you, which only leaves 4 days for you to come up with plans for.
In addition, all patrols are required to remove all food from the shed.

First off, congratulations are in order for Steven Hale who recently had his Eagle Scout Project approved. Steven, who is undertaking a very ambitious project, has his project planned for the 24th, 25th, and 26th of this month (June), and more details on that should be forth coming.

In addition, this month our Eagle Scout Court of Honor will be held on the 18th of June at Hope Methodist Church. Here we will be celebrating Aaron Kopania and Ryan Matthews’ accomplishments. Also on the calendar for this month is our annual swim day at Lake Oswego near Chatsworth. Bring your family and friends as we swim, canoe, and chow down on Saturday June, 11th.
More information on each of these events can be found on the calendar.